Flasch’s aggressive play rewarded
‘A team to look out for,’ says skip
A relatively new team on the Canadian men’s competitive curling circuit turned heads at the 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar Canadian Olympic Curling Pre-Trials on Wednesday.
Colton Flasch, with the Marsh twins, Kevin and Dan, along with lead Matt Lang, executed runbacks with precision en route to an 8-7 win over previously unbeaten John Morris and his Vernon, B.C., team of Jim Cotter, who throws skip rocks, Caitlin Schneider and Tyrel Griffith in the noon draw. “This team is new, but we are definitely a team to look out for,” said Flasch after the foursome from the Nutana Curling Club in Saskatoon picked up its first win in three starts. ”I think we have all the shots and we can make every tough shot out there.”
He felt the team played well in its opening losses, but lacked some key shots.
“This time we just put eight shots together every end, and we were able to come up with the win,” said Flasch.
Two men’s and two women’s teams from this week’s event at Eastlink Arena will advance to the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Olympic qualifying event in Ottawa next month.
Played aggressive
Aggressive playmaking prevented Morris from setting up the big ends.
Flasch needed to draw the button with his final shot in the eighth end, and made it to take a 6-4 lead, only to watch Cotter draw for the tie in the ninth. In the 10th end, Flasch made a runback double, clearing a guard and Team Morris’s shot rock in the process, but he left his own rock in guard position. Cotter took advantage of the guard, and placed his last stone behind it, back four.
With Flasch taking the same path, his sweepers took charge of the rock right out of his hand, only letting up as the rock entered the house.
Morris took over at the tee line and feverishly worked the stone back. A measurement determined it finished about a half inch closer to the button than Cotter’s stone.
“We just did what we needed to do,” Flasch said of his gamewinning shot.
“We were just playing aggressive,” he said of his team’s approach. “Every time we had a chance to play aggressive, just keep the pedal to the metal, because we have nothing to lose at this point.
“We just have to keep rattling off wins, so we’re just going to keep playing aggressive.”